


Wood, Breaking, Waking

by GretchenSinister



Category: Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Other, eldritch guardians
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-21
Updated: 2020-03-21
Packaged: 2021-02-28 23:47:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 702
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23245756
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GretchenSinister/pseuds/GretchenSinister
Summary: Original Prompt: "I saw someone bring up on the tv tropes page that Pitch could have been much crueler because if just snapping the staff quickly caused Jack to double over in pain, then what would happen if he had decided to go as slowly as possible when destroying it?Break my heart."The entity partially known as Pitch is having trouble understanding why Jack Frost still thinks he’s confined to a human body, when he’s clearly not–after all, he’s chosen to put some of his consciousness in a piece of wood, of all things!Sandy has sort of been…absorbed by Pitch at this point (remember how someone pointed out that Antarctica Pitch was one Sandy taller than before? That’s weird, but it makes this story sort of canon-compliant?)Part of the Apotheosis AU
Relationships: Pitch Black/Sanderson Mansnoozie
Kudos: 14
Collections: Blacksand Short Fics





	Wood, Breaking, Waking

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on Tumblr on 3/23/2015.

Talking, talking, talking. Drowned Boy saying the name Pitch. Answering. Easy to keep this going, but Drowned Boy doesn’t seem to know about everything else going on, strange, strange, what did he think had happened three hundred years ago? Pitch watches him with eyes while the rest thinks and reaches out and finds oh how more than strange, there isn’t much of the Drowned Boy anywhere except that remade human body, does he think that’s him? How sad what torture and  
  
 _surely his anger is understandable now_  
  
a sleepy voice near the core, so warm so good, shiver and uncurl on planes the Drowned Boy really isn’t aware of? Really?  
  
 _really yes really understand know what he thinks?_  
  
oh now yes sorry sorry must have looked terrible but being so distant so long very unkind and hard to figure out otherways when shining bodyshaped  
  
 _could have asked_ sunlaughter  
  
black scales raising, black scales being patted down  
  
Can never think of that without…you?  
  
 _it’s okay it’s okay, no need for that word, didn’t hurt for very long, let it happen, saw understanding trouble  
  
(and missed this, feels sort of like inside, inside means a lot after wearing a body for a long time)_  
  
summer nights as warm as arterial blood and Pitch asks the Drowned Boy to join him, barely remembers to call him Jack instead and maybe doesn’t get the tone quite right.  
  
More laughter beyond lengthwidthdepthtime but it hasn’t worked anyway  
  
 _not all bodies so easy_  
  
shh shh if he thinks there was destruction then how will he agree? And when will he know? And…  
  
Pitch and the rest notice that the staff is also the Drowned Boy, is also real wood, too, not just the thought of it like the Drowned Boy’s body is the memory of flesh.  
  
Yes that’s the way maybe he’ll see then and what is there to bargain with? What does the Drowned Boy want other than what was offered? Oh yes here it is, a piece of one of the others.  
  
A miscalculation, and Pitch throws the piece away instead of putting it back with the others, and the Drowned Boy is talking more, always more talking, but he doesn’t have the staff anymore, or at least he doesn’t think he does.  
  
Bizarre. It really is only wood, though the Drowned Boy is in it. Pitch holds it near the ends and starts to bend it and the Drowned Boy groans. It hurts? How can he not understand that his body is only what he thinks it is, then? Pitch pushes and pushes and the wood cracks and splinters, loud in the Antarctic silence for a moment or two only, before Jack’s cries of pain drown it out. He’s doubled over, writhing in the snow, he’s screaming and  
  
why is he like this he let it go the ice left it  
  
 _only thing he’s had to hang onto his whole existence other than his name_  
  
The crackling becomes audible again as the Drowned Boy’s screams turn to keens and whimpers and gasps.  
  
 _he’s not going to get it he’s never realized he died  
  
I think you should get it over with_  
  
“I” the idea is painful and even if the Drowned boy doesn’t understand anything Pitch and the rest does and the staff is at once cracked in two, for Pitch has never been able to fix, this is the best Pitch’s hands can do. The break is usually bad, but never as bad as the process of severing.  
  
The two pieces of the staff are left behind and a little warmth returns to all of Pitch.  
  
 _will probably have to leave again before Jack understands_  
  
couldn’t stand this permanently of course  
  
The lie and the disbelief of it are paired particles.  
  
just  
  
no “I”  
  
no more “I”  
  
 _then stop being a “you”, tarhorror_  
  


* * *

  
  
When next seen, the Drowned Boy has made the broken staff whole again. He knows he’s been dead.  
  
when brightvision when?—The question asked from a used body to a new one.  
  
 _just a week just a week_ comes the thought from the fading dream _we’ll have fun waking him up to himself_  
  
and practice with your body beforehand, dearterror

**Author's Note:**

> Comments from Tumblr:
> 
> marypsue reblogged this from gretchensinister: #this is so rich and I too love the pronoun confusions and everything they mean
> 
> tejoxys reblogged this from gretchensinister: #I love it when they argue over pronouns


End file.
